China spots possible flight debris

Malaysia on Saturday said China's satellite has spotted object in the southern Indian Ocean which might be connected to the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which went missing since Mar 8.

"The news that I just received is that the Chinese ambassador received satellite images of floating objects in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to verify," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said while addressing a press conference on Saturday.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport later in the day said in a statement: "Further to the statement made in this afternoon's press conference, we would like to confirm that the suspected floating object captured by the Chinese satellite was 22.5 metres by 13 metres, not 22 metres by 30 metres, as was stated in the press conference."

"This information was received by phone during the press conference, and was initially misheard," it said.

Addressing the press conference, Hishammuddin earlier said the 'diplomatic, logistical and technical efforts' continue in the search for MH370.

"As we intensify the search and rescue operations, the overall emphasis remains the same: using all available means to narrow the search areas in both corridors," he said.

Speaking on the search operations, which continued on Saturday, the Minister said: "In the northern corridor, in response to diplomatic notes, we can confirm that China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have verbally informed the search and rescue operation that, based on preliminary analysis, there have been no sightings of the aircraft on their radar."

"With respect to the southern corridor, today two Chinese Ilyushin IL-76s will arrive in Perth to begin operations. The Shaanxi Y-8 which arrived yesterday will be operating from Subang air base in Malaysia. China is also sending an additional two ships from the Andaman Sea to join the five Chinese ships already in the southern corridor.Two Indian aircraft, a P-8 Poseidon and C-130 Hercules, arrived in Malaysia at 18:00 last night to assist with the search," he said.

He said HMS Echo is currently in the Persian Gulf and is en route to the southern corridor.

Hishammuddin said: "The ship is equipped with advanced sensors that allow it to search effectively underwater."

The Malaysia Airlines flight, which is carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew and went missing since Mar 8.